All life comes out of bleakness.

When the desire to go forward lessens, When the brightness of insight dims, When the hope of fining a way fails, It is then that I enter into your darkness And I find a nest in your sheltering womb. Entering the hushed cave of your heart I abide in the shadow of your presence, Tuning toward that which is not seen But known in faith, accepted with hope. Resting there, I am enveloped in your love. ~ Joyce Rupp,  Fragments of Your Ancient Name

Another of my favorite songs of Christmas, Mary, Did You Know?

Yesterday I listened to a K-LOVE DJ tell of decorating her first Christmas tree as an independent adult. It was beautiful and "perfect".  She was excited to show others her beautiful tree. Eventually she married, had a family.... and she has allowed her small children to decorate the tree. : )

You guessed it, this tree is not the tree she decorated "before kids".  She admitted this tree is not the "perfect" tree of her younger days. But then,  as she concluded her story she said,

"In the messiness, there you find perfection."

Jesus, when being tempted in the wilderness, said, "It is written..."

Ann Voskamp writes,

And it's the Word of God that turns the rocks in the mouth to loves on the tongue. That fills our emptiness with the true and real good, that makes the yes see, the body full of light. (AnnVoskamp, One Thousand Gifts, p 96)

Messiness.  Bleakness.  Despair. Sorrow. Darkness....Have you ever thought that new life come out of such places, and hasn't it always been so?

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. ~ Genesis 1

Ann writes:

All new life labors out of the very bowels of darkness...Out of the darkness of the cross, the world transfigures into new life. And there is no other way. (AnnVoskamp, One Thousand Gifts, p 96)

In yesterday's video Mary was shown as "bearing down".   It is suffering/bleakness/imperfection... that has the realest possibility to bear down and deliver grace.

I have read stories of such grace being delivered and I have experienced receiving such grace.  It has been within my brokenness that I have been able to turn toward God, the one who give such grace, and in that grace I have discovered the fullness of joy.

Mary, did you know....

In the midst of suffering, it is difficult to know that grace/new life....is being formed within me and around me as the Spirit of God hovers......

Ephesians 1:11 says,

^11-12It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.

He's working out everything and everyone....

Ummmm, I've been journaling about eyesight and perspective.  I want to focus on the same Word Jesus focused on that enabled him to stay focused on Truth while in the wilderness as I work and live through my own wilderness experiences.  I'm thinking that in some ways "life" is a wilderness experience and it is my choice on what I choose to focus.

I can focus on the questions, the fear, the worry...the despair, the "whys" or I can focus on the Truth that tells me the Spirit of God hovers within, among, between...working out everything and everyone.  I can focus on that which brings new life out from the questions.....from that which seems to be total bleakness.....  New Life!

During this season of Advent, of anticipation.... I want to do my best to choose...to wear the lens of that Word on which Jesus focused and as I strive to do this, I pray that I might see.  Who knows when angels might appear in the sky announcing Great News?  : )

I do not want to be so preoccupied with "stuff" that I might miss seeing, hearing....

Many Blessings ~ Sandi